If the goal of Congressional Republicans is to destroy Obamacare, seems they are working against their own interests. Look at today’s Washington Post:  The lead headlines are about the government shutdown, the “budget standoff” and Republicans being blamed. Secondary stories are about the “orderly shutdown,” furloughs disrupting the city’s rhythm, etc.

Look down the page and you’ll see smaller headlines like “On debut, Obamacare Web sites see high interest and some glitches.”  Look inside the paper and you’ll see more stories about the problems getting Obamacare off the ground.

Now, imagine if there was no government shutdown; if the budget had been resolved on time. Those Obamacare stories would move up the page and get more prominence in papers around the country and on cable news. What a great way to put a knife in Obamacare,  letting people see how it is or isn’t working, at least in the implementation stage.

People would be learning more about the Affordable Health Care Act and maybe seeing some of the problems with it, reinforcing challenges with it. Instead, they read about Republican intransigence which reinforces the fact they blame Republicans for the budget stalemate.

Duh.

It  wasn’t my genius analytical skills that thought of this. For that, I need to  credit Paul and Jennifer Dyck, colleagues of mine who worked for Republicans before joining the firm I work for.

Sen. Ted Cruz can keep launching his Cruz Missiles at the president, but if he’d back off he might be closer to accomplishing his alleged goal of destroying Obamacare by letting the news coverage do his job for him. 

Who’s to blame for the government shutdown? Who cares?

Seems our congressmen and senators, and the White House, are more focused on who gets the blame for shutting the government than on finding a solution. 
 
It’s like the “rules” on one of my favorite TV shows – Who’s Line is it Anyway?” That’s a show where there are four comedians who do improvisation. The moderator always announces the rules as: “It’s all made up and the points don’t matter.” Seems the Congress has adopted those rules – problem is, it does matter.

I have friends who work for the government. Those friends have families. Those families need money to survive. I have friends, too, who rely on government services. Close the government, no services. I have friends and family on Social
Security – no checks issued during a shutdown. To some on the right-est wing, the government is a wasteful operation that is better off not open. Ridiculous and stupid.

I worked for the federal government. Lots of good, faithful, responsible people doing their jobs. Some jerks too. Just like at every workplace in the private sector that I’ve been.

But let’s get back to the point : Who’s to blame for the shutdown? I don’t care. Like most Americans, I blame them all because none of them – Democrat or Republican – is showing any guts (leadership) and trying to solve it. It’s, here’s my position and I’m not negotiating. Great way to run a schoolyard, not a  government.